A request for Marlborough’s first set of permanent traffic lights to be installed in Blenheim has led to the revelation – there is already a set in the works for Picton.
Port Marlborough confirmed this week that permanent traffic lights were planned for Lagoon Rd, the main route to the ferry terminal, in a restricted port zone to ensure that vehicles could safely cross Lagoon Rd.
Councillor Allanah Burgess told councillors about “the first permanent traffic light” for Marlborough at a council meeting last week, prompting excitement and murmuring.
Councillors were reviewing an annual plan submission asking for a set of traffic lights to replace a roundabout in Blenheim, where State Highway 1 met State Highway 6 and Dillons Point Rd.
The submitter, who frequently used that roundabout, said traffic lights would reduce congestion. They often waited 10 to 15 minutes there for a break in the SH1 traffic, they said.
“This is not ideal and better intersection management should be considered.”
Mayor Nadine Taylor said that even though the Picton traffic lights would not be part of the council’s road network, “the ice is broken”.
Councillor Scott Adams said that roundabout was part of a state highway, so it was managed by New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, and was outside the council’s jurisdiction.
“But it’s interesting that the community is starting to think that Blenheim may need to adopt traffic lights, which can be a novelty because we don’t have any permanently fixed ones,” Adams said to a laugh around the room.
The region’s lack of traffic lights and preference for roundabouts had long been an unusual claim to fame, and the question of whether traffic lights were needed tended to divide residents.
Blenheim was thought to be the largest town without them, with an estimated 2025 population of 29,800. Masterton, also without traffic lights, was close behind with a population of 28,900.
Blenheim was supposed to get its first traffic lights in 2019, in the form of pedestrian signals, on Nelson St (SH6) outside Marlborough Girls’ College.
But the project was put on hold later that year, due to work on the co-location of Marlborough Boys’ and Girls’ colleges. Co-location was cancelled in 2024.
On the subject of traffic movements in Picton, councillor John Hyndman said the many trucks parking along the streets around Nelson Square was “really a serious accident waiting to happen”.
“It is very dangerous, especially for kiddies running back and forth between the trucks to get to the park,” Hyndman said.
Property and community facilities manager Jamie Lyall said the council had leased the Waitohi Domain to provide a laydown area for Port Marlborough’s ferry upgrades and also to function as a truck park to pull trucks away from Nelson Square.
“[There] will be a ring road around Waitohi Domain to provide better truck access,” Lyall said.
“We will then need to adopt a bylaw to restrict the vehicles from parking beside Nelson Square.”
Chief executive John Boswell said the key question was whether the truck park would have enough space for all the trucks that came in and out of Picton.
“If they are, great. My gut says they probably won’t be, and the people will still have an issue to deal with,” Boswell said.
The council still had a plan to redevelop Nelson Square, which would be inspired by Victoria University design students reimagining of the space.
Councillors discussed other annual plan submissions, deciding against creating a local food strategy, and responding favourably to a request for “no littering” signs along SH1.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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